Significance of temperature and preincubation temperature on survival of Listeria monocytogenes at pH 4.8

Survival of a native toxigenic isolate of Listeria monocytogenes CFR 1302 during storage of milk-based foods can be a potential cause of health risk

The ability of a native toxigenic culture of Listeria monocytogenes CFR 1302 to survive and elaborate associated toxigenic trait in ice cream and mango pulp-based lactic fermented milk was studied. The culture of L. monocytogenes inoculated at two initial levels of 4.6 and 5.6 log₁₀ CFU/ml almost remained unaltered during storage of the food products. However, in both the milk-based products, a marginal increase in viable population was observed during 2-4 d of storage as against the initial inoculum levels. The toxigenic trait, listeriolysin "O" was detected by PCR based on species-specific hlyA primers in the two products without any step of enrichment. The positive amplification in PCR was evidenced with initial population levels of 6.3, 7.3, and 8.3 log₁₀ CFU/ml of the respective products. In culture broth, PCR detection was positive with the lowest level of 2.3 log₁₀ CFU/ml. The established pathogenic strain of L. monocytogenes Scott A used as a reference culture revealed almost the same behavior to that of native culture in the food products. The findings of present study bring into focus that, irrespective of low storage temperatures, there exists the potential health hazard associated with foods initially contaminated with risk population levels of L. monocytogenes.

Effect of preincubation temperature and pH on the individual cell lag phase of Listeria monocytogenes, cultured at refrigeration temperatures

The impact of precultural temperature and pH on the distribution of the lag phase of individual Listeria monocytogenes cells was assessed during preincubation at 7 degrees C, using a dilution protocol to obtain single cells, and optical density measurements to estimate the individual lag phase. Firstly, the pure temperature effect (37, 15, 10, 7, 4 and 2 degrees C) was investigated on a subsequent growth at 7 degrees C and pH 7.4. Secondly, low precultural temperatures (10, 7 and 4 degrees C) were combined with a controlled pH at 7.4 and 5.7 with a subsequent growth at 7 degrees C and at different pH values (7.4, 6.0 and 5.5). For all temperature-pH combinations, the individual cell lag phase was determined using a three-phase linear growth model. It was observed that at low precultural temperatures (2, 4 and 7 degrees C), a high proportion of L. monocytogenes cells were able to grow at 7 degrees C with almost no lag phase, consequently, the resulting distributions were positively skewed. Beside this, the variability observed was lower than at higher precultural temperatures. Regarding the precultural pH effect, at pH 7.4 the mean values of the lag phases were shorter at lower preincubation temperatures; while at pH 5.7 small pH transitions produced shorter individual lag phases at all precultural temperatures. The quantification of the effect of precultural conditions on the individual cell lag phase duration would improve the accuracy of the existing growth models, especially when a series of processing and storage steps are linked together in a process model or exposure assessment. Distributions will be fitted to the data for every set of conditions, generating useful tools for further risk assessment purposes.

Changes in heat resistance resulting from pH and nutritional shifts of acid-adapted and non-acid-adapted Listeria monocytogenes Scott A

Stationary-phase Listeria monocytogenes cells that were either pH dependent acid adapted or not acid adapted were heat challenged at 60 degrees C in a two-level full factorial design for three variables. The three variables and the levels consisted of tryptic soy broth (TSB) and sterile cell-free culture supernatant (sterile TSB), the presence and absence of 1% added glucose, and pH 4.8 and pH 7. Non-acid-adapted cells were most heat resistant when challenged in TSB (mean decimal reduction times at 60 degrees C: D60 = 1.16 min). In the absence of added glucose, non-acid-adapted cells had similar D60-values for inactivations at pH 4.8 and pH 7; however, the presence of glucose caused non-acid-adapted cells challenged at pH 4.8 to be more heat sensitive (D60 = 0.65 min) than those inactivated at pH 7 (D60 = 1.03 min), indicating an interaction between glucose and pH. Overall, the significantly decreased heat resistance of the acid-adapted cells was due to the presence of glucose (D60 = 0.78 min without glucose, D60 = 0.59 min with glucose). Acid-adapted cells heat challenged in TSB had similar D60-values for inactivations at pH 4.8 and pH 7; however, acid-adapted cells in sterile TSB challenged at pH 4.8 (D60 = 0.52 min) had significantly lower heat resistance than did cells challenged at pH 7 (D60 = 0.76 min), indicating an interaction between the medium and pH. The L. monocytogenes survivor data were modeled to extract information on the frequency distribution of heat resistance within heat-challenged populations, and the frequency distribution characteristics of mean, mode, and variance were compared among treatment conditions. Significant differences in the frequency distribution data were compared with the D60-values. These data indicated that the presence and level of cross-protection is highly dependent on the physiological state of the cells and nutrient availability at the time of heat challenge. Such conditions should be considered to ensure that stressed pathogens in foods are destroyed or inactivated.

Impact of preheating on the behavior of Listeria monocytogenes in a broth that mimics Camembert cheese composition

The effect of preheating on the survival of L. monocytogenes in Richard's broth, which mimics the composition of Camembert cheese composition, was examined. Experiments were carried out to reproduce contamination of cheese with environmental heat-stressed cells of L. monocytogenes surviving hot-cleaning procedures. Cells in mid-log phase were heated for 30 min at 56 degrees C before being inoculated into Richard's broth. The pHs and temperatures of Richard's broth were chosen to recreate the conditions of curd dripping (pH 5, 25 degrees C), of the beginning of cheese ripening (pH 5, 12 degrees C), and of the beginning (pH 5, 4 degrees C) and the end (pH 7, 4 degrees C) of cheese storage. Immediately after heat treatment, the viability loss was especially high for strain 306715, which exhibited only 0.6% +/- 0.2% survival, compared with 22% +/- 8.7% for strain EGD. The percentages of the surviving heated cells that were injured were 93% +/- 8% for strain 306715 and 98% +/- 3% for strain EGD. The destruction of the surviving L. monocytogenes cells was accelerated when they encountered the pH and temperature conditions of Camembert cheese during manufacturing, ripening, and cold storage (pH 5 at 25, 12, and 4 degrees C, respectively). The multiplication of the surviving heated cells was retarded under favorable growth conditions similar to those of storage by the distributor and the consumer (pH 7 at 4 and 12 degrees C, respectively).

Cold shock and its effect on ribosomes and thermal tolerance in Listeria monocytogenes

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fatty acid analysis were used to determine how cold shocking reduces the thermal stability of Listeria monocytogenes. Additionally, antibiotics that can elicit production of cold or heat shock proteins were used to determine the effect of translation blockage on ribosome thermal stability. Fatty acid profiles showed no significant variations as a result of cold shock, indicating that changes in membrane fatty acids were not responsible for the cold shock-induced reduction in thermal tolerance. Following a 3-h cold shock from 37 to 0 degrees C, the maximum denaturation temperature of the 50S ribosomal subunit and 70S ribosomal particle peak was reduced from 73.4 +/- 0.1 degrees C (mean +/- standard deviation) to 72.1 +/- 0.5 degrees C (P < or = 0.05), indicating that cold shock induced instability in the associated ribosome structure. The maximum denaturation temperature of the 30S ribosomal subunit peak did not show a significant shift in temperature (from 67.5 +/- 0.4 degrees C to 66.8 +/- 0.5 degrees C) as a result of cold shock, suggesting that either 50S subunit or 70S particle sensitivity was responsible for the intact ribosome fragility. Antibiotics that elicited changes in maximum denaturation temperature in ribosomal components also elicited reductions in thermotolerance. Together, these data suggest that ribosomal changes resulting from cold shock may be responsible for the decrease in D value observed when L. monocytogenes is cold shocked.

Evaluation of the impact of short-term temperature abuse on the microbiology and shelf life of a model ready-to-use vegetable combination product

The growth dynamics of indigenous aerobic mesophilic populations (AMP), lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and inoculated (Listeria spp.) microbial populations on cooked and fresh vegetable products, packaged as separate entities and in combination, subjected to temperature fluctuation, were assessed. Microbial proliferation was temperature and product dependent, being most pronounced at 12 degrees C in all products with maximum growth rates of 0.140, 0.175 and 0.126 log10 CFU/g per h being identified for Listeria, aerobic mesophilic and LAB populations, respectively. Listeria spp. and AMP generally demonstrated higher rates of growth within products containing cooked vegetables. Prolonged storage at 3 degrees C resulted in a reduced ability by AMP and Listeria spp. to proliferate upon exposure to growth temperatures; this was not the case with LAB populations. Comparison of Listeria population estimates made using selective (Oxford) and non-selective (nutrient agar) identified reduced recovery on the former. The magnitude of the deviation increased with the duration of exposure of Listeria populations to 3 degrees C with recoveries on selective systems being reduced by 6.3% immediately after inoculation and 82.3% after 168 h at 3 degrees C, respectively. Growth of populations associated with exposure to abuse temperatures was not accompanied by significant changes in product colour (P < 0.05).

Behaviour of Listeria monocytogenes under combined chilling processes

The behaviour of Listeria monocytogenes under chilling processes was investigated. Growth kinetics were measured at 7 degrees C in TSBYE culture medium as a function of pH (7.2 and 6.2), pre-incubation temperatures (4 or 7 degrees C), cooling (0.05 or 0.1 degree C min-1) and freezing (0 and -5 degrees C) treatments. Growth curves generated were fitted by Gompertz and Baranyi functions. The Baranyi function gave better parameter estimation values than the Gompertz equation which over-estimated the specific growth rate values. Listeria monocytogenes grew at 7 degrees C without a lag phase, except when the sub-culture was performed at 37 degrees C, whereas the specific growth rate was affected by the chilling processes. In fact, L. monocytogenes grew slightly faster at 7 degrees C when a 4 degrees C pre-incubation treatment was applied than with a 7 degrees C pre-incubation treatment. These results suggest that to mimic the processes of contamination in industry, predictive microbiology studies with L. monocytogenes should be performed with organisms cultured at low temperatures.